Euronext, the pan-European exchange, is changing its rules to allow quicker admission of newly floated large companies to its Euronext 100 index amid a depressed initial public offering market.

The rule change will affect any IPOs on Euronext after April 1, 2003. The new rule states: "A newly listed stock could qualify for fast entry at the next quarterly review if its ranking in terms of market capitalisation at the time of the periodic assessment or at the time of the IPO if this occurs after the periodic assessment date, is 50 or above." Prior to the rule change newly listed stocks had to trade at least 40 days at the time of the periodic assessment before becoming eligible.